Public Art in Russia Katherine Gressel

Project Summary: Krasnoyarsk

2009-12-13T15:09:00.000-08:00

In Krasnoyarsk, I spent a week working every afternoon/evening with a master class of teen and young adult students to produce a thematic mural at a local public school. The group was assembled by project manager Irina Ulanova through a partnership with the Krasnoyarsk Museum Center--many had done a similar CEC ArtsLink workshop a few months prior and some were experienced art students. I began the project with a slide show lecture introducing a wide range of public art in NYC and across the United States, and my own work. I presented a general project theme of "Ideal Krasnoyarsk," based on a series of exhibits I had just finished curating in NYC, "Brooklyn Utopias," which had invited artists to respond to the theme of Ideal Brooklyn. Given the short time frame of the project and especially upon learning that street art and graffiti culture is of great interest to young Krasnoyarsk artists, I decided to make quick and low-budget street art techniques like stenciling the basis of the project. I showed examples in my presentation to inspire students.

The group was extremely proactive in collaboratively planning and executing the project under my guidance. In two planning workshops, the participants narrowed down the "Ideal Krasnoyarsk" theme to address the specific importance of preserving the architecture of the past and encouraging a vibrantly artistic future. We divided the mural composition into three main sections: past, represented by black and white stencils of demolished Krasnoyarsk buildings, on pages flying out on either side from a central book where two adjacent walls intersect; present, represented by solid green and brown skylines of current-day Krasnoyarsk and a river; and future, represented by freestyle, abstract graffiti landscapes by the more virtuosic artists in the group--these seem to overtake the present-day skyline, suggesting the importance of youthful artistic expression in an ideal future. The mural's title, "Ideal Krasnoyarsk," appears in several places, including the central book pages. The title and participant names are written side by side in both English and Russian, symbolizing the importance of global cultural exchange in an ideal society. To enhance this message, we also included two stencils of important NYC landmarks.

I was extremely impressed by this group of young artists who took so much initiative over the project, but at the same time was very open to discussion and direction from me. Special thanks to project managers Ira and Slava, for not only administrative and translation support, but for giving me a place to stay in their home, and the most fun introduction to Russia I could have hoped for!

Project Summary: St. Petersburg

2009-12-13T13:12:00.001-08:00

This project, whose title translates to "From Our Windows," builds upon a recurring theme in my own artwork: combining multiple views in one picture and using windows as compositional devices. The project transformed an upstairs corridor in public school 33 in St. Petersburg through inserting painted windows on its walls. The school serves deaf and hearing-impaired students aged 7-16. The hallway runs through a dormitory for younger students who live at the school, and the administration wanted the art installation to relate to the thoughts and interests of these young children, and involve the participation throughout of a core team of about 10 students in the upper grades.

Six resulting "windows" (or window groupings) were created over about two and a half weeks of working nearly every day with this core team of students. Each window structure is made of wood with three-dimensional frames carved by a professional sculptor according to my design specifications. The carvings suggest the style of traditional Russian folk art windows, alluding to the importance of historic preservation. Each window shows different interior or exterior scenes based on drawings by both all of the younger classes and the core mural team in response to the question, "what would you like to see inside and outside your windows?" Three "outdoor" windows display an improved version of the actual neighborhood outside; an juxtaposition of faraway lands students might like to visit (including NYC); and a fantastical, fairy tale world. Three "indoor" window sets show different warm and welcoming household interiors; a museum gallery (based loosely on the famous St. Petersburg Hermitage museum); and a classroom. Rather than showing people in each scene, I incorporated playful, cartoonish cats, dogs, and birds based on the students' renderings of homes and neighborhoods full of animals. For each window frame, students designed stencils specific to the content of each window, and used them to create decorative patterns around the windows; such patterns are a traditional component of all Russian household objects.

There were some obvious challenges in undertaking such a complex public art with young people who not only speak a different language from me, but for the most part have very limited hearing abilities even in Russian translation. However, I also discovered universal ways of communicating through gestures, pictures, and visual demonstrations, arguably the most essential components of collaborative art-making. Most of the students had a prior interest and background in art but had not previously worked on this type of project. Yet some had highly developed artistic talent, and all showed tremendous commitment, staying late after school and coming in on their weekend to work. I also owe a lot to CEC's highly organized and dedicated project manager, Nastya Tolstaya, who worked alongside me with the students, acted as the translator and facilitator between all parties involved in the project, and did essential hands-on work too!

My hope is that the project not only speaks to my own artistic interests, but reflects the ideas of the children at the school and breeds a sense of both ownership and imagination. Windows often serve as metaphors for new possibilities, and I hope that these windows will inspire future students to think beyond their immediate surroundings and take advantage of all their capabilities.

Final meals in St. Petersburg: Traditional Georgian Food

2009-12-13T12:49:00.001-08:00

Chicken shish kabob dish...with a side of lavash bread and a variety of pickled vegetables...also a traditional walnut sauce that tastes a little like Tahini. The other chicken dish also has a walnut cream sauce.

Final meals in St. Petersburg: Traditional Ukranian food (and music!)

2009-12-13T12:31:00.000-08:00

Dumplings...in this case stuffed with potato.
Borscht...it comes in several varieties!
Chicken kiev.
This dessert has a really long name I have since forgotten, but it was really good! I think these little pancakes are stuffed with some kind of cottage cheese and served with berry cream sauce. Yum!

A walk from the Hermitage to the Church of the Spilled Blood

2009-12-13T12:19:00.000-08:00

Outside the Hermitage...I had already been there, but it's really necessary to go 2-3 times to see the whole thing!

St. Petersburg has a lot of bridges...

and canals!

Too bad it's already dark at 3:30pm...but it's a beautiful city at night too!Souvenir shop...I think a lot of these are based on Baba Yaga, a witch who shows up in a lot of Russian folk tales.
Visit http://www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour/church-of-savior.asp for more info on this famous building, the Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood.

This footware is all the rage...

2009-12-13T12:17:00.000-08:00

Russian Ethnography Museum

2009-12-13T11:46:00.000-08:00

After doing a whole public art project based on traditional Russian windows, carvings, and patterns, I have come to really love Russian folk art. This museum was great--documents the traditions of more than 150 different peoples living in the Russian territories.
http://eng.ethnomuseum.ru/

Russian windows: the real thing!

Nemo?

They make you pay to take photos in most Russian museums...but in this one at least you get to wear a cool badge!

The Russian Museum (from the oustside)

2009-12-13T11:41:00.001-08:00

A huge museum dedicated to tracing the history of Russian art from the 10th-20th centuries: http://www.rusmuseum.ru/eng/. Definitely worth seeing!

Walking around the streets of St. Petersburg

2009-12-13T11:30:00.001-08:00

I had a few days to really explore St. Petersburg after the project presentation Thursday and before I was to fly home on Monday. Or, at least cram in a few museums, restaurants, and souvenir shops in the center of the city near the apartment. Not only did I see some great art and eat some great food, now I don't have to go holiday shopping in NYC at all!

They have a Carl's Junior here! (But not in NYC...)

An igloo in the middle of the street?
Department store, with a New Years tree

At a souvenir shop

Apartment in St. Petersburg

2009-12-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

CEC ArtsLink provided me with a great place to stay! (same building as the office)...

Final ceremony at the school!

2009-12-10T07:14:00.001-08:00

Installation in the hallway

My name in Russian on the title window!

Students check out the finished project...
followed by speeches and thank-yous.

The group and I pose together.

Afterward there is a reception with champagne and pastries just for the teachers and other adults...
and then tea with the students, where they receive gifts from CEC Artslink: drawing pads and pastels.
Dasha gets a special set of colored pencils for all her extra hard work on the project!

I feel very happy that the project seems to have meant so much to these students!

Finishing and installing!

2009-12-09T17:05:00.000-08:00

Special thanks to Sasha, the amazing sculptor who crafted and installed all the window frames! He definitely took some nice liberties with the drawings I'd given him to work with, in terms of inventing some of his own carvings for the window frame tops like simplified birds and fish. After the students left for the day, I worked on finishing up the final details on all the paintings, while Sasha's assistant and Nastya cut and primed the small dividing panes for each window and started to fasten all the pieces together. Around 7pm we all went upstairs to arrange the windows in the corridor wall where the installation was to take place. We figured out the height and placement of each window, which turned out to be quite different from my original sketch--my scale drawing hadn't accounted for things like fire hydrants or random heating fixtures on certain walls. But fortunately all the windows fit well on the walls and I was very pleased with the scale and how they transformed the space!

By 2:30 am, we were finally done with everything--the painting, the installation, and even writing the project name and all the participating artists' names (in Russian only this time) on a small title window. I cannot express my gratitude to Nastya especially for putting in the longest work day of her entire professional life! (for me of course, working on an art project until 3am is nothing new...). This was an amazing mural team....accomplishing so much in such a short time. I think everyone from the school is pleased with the turnout (judging by their use of the word "krasiva"/"beautiful") and I am hoping for a positive response at the final presentation!

Stencilling Pictures

2009-12-09T16:56:00.001-08:00

Making stencils on window frames

2009-12-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

I'm really glad we did this stencil component because it gave the students the opportunity to be creative again. The paintings had to be so tight, the students didn't have as much freedom to invent anything new--they had mostly followed my sketches or filled in colors I had assigned them (with the exception of Dasha, of course!) At first I had wanted to make the stencil placement and color as orchestrated a process. We spent the first 15 min or so arranging where all the stencils would go on the window frames, and I tried to give suggestions like making patterns and keeping color limited. However, when the individual participants all began to work on separate windows, some of them got really inventive with combining different colors in the same stencil, shading with the sponge brushes, making irregular patterns that looked like they were wandering across the frames, etc...and I decided it was ok, because after all this mural is eclectic as it is and is for a school environment, so it should look playful and fun and reflect the hand of children. And this stencil element will be a final way for these students to take ultimate ownership over the project. I think no matter how it's used, stenciling always adds a more exciting and accessible element to a mural.

Starting to fit the window paintings into their frames!

2009-12-08T14:22:00.000-08:00

Even though the paintings were not all completely done yet, the carpenters worked on measuring pieces of wood to fit over each window. One more day (Wednesday) before the project presentation! Pretty much did 12 straight hours of painting...

Why is Russian school cafeteria food so much better than American school cafeteria food?

2009-12-08T14:15:00.000-08:00

Cutting stencils

2009-12-08T14:08:00.001-08:00

Today I worked all day on putting the final details/touches on all the window paintings..almost done with them all! But before that, Nastya and I organized which stencils will go on which window panes, and she worked with the students to trace the previously-drawn stencil shapes onto vellum paper and then cut them out. Fortunately, most stencil drawings were already a good size for the windows, so we didn't have to re-draw too many! Some of the students also designed new stencils so that we would have enough for each window. The idea is that the stencils that decorate the outside of each window should relate to the content inside.

More mural-painting pics!

2009-12-07T22:49:00.000-08:00

The mural-painting has been fun, but challenging...so much work getting all these different windows painted, and then we will still have to put them all together inside the frames and install them on the wall...but it's been great that there have been some talented painters in the group who have been there to help a lot. Mainly one student, Dasha, stands out...she was the only person who was there all weekend working on the biggest "window" painting, the fantasy world that she had originally designed. At first I was reluctant to let her take so much ownership over painting it because I was afraid it would be stylistically different from the rest of the windows, but she was so eager to help out and I quickly realized that she is a very skilled painter. Now I think I will actually let her painting style influence how I finish the rest of them! She is also fast, and surprisingly enough it became pretty easy for me to give her direction even though the only way I could communicate with her was through hand gestures, showing pictures/examples, and writing down a few words in English that she knew on paper. I started asking her to paint details in some of the other windows--she's good with drawing things like cats and dogs from imagination. In general though, one of the challenges of the project has definitely been my (and Nastya's!) inability to give clear directions to individual students, e.g. if I want them to paint something in a different way or stop what they are doing. If I were to do this project again in the future I probably would have made the painting component simpler in some way so that it would be fool-proof for everyone to know what to do without a lot of direction. But it has also been rewarding realizing how much can be communicated without words, in terms of showing someone how to paint or what something should look like. And I think it'll be great that we have all these detailed paintings with so much variety that came out of the ideas in everyone's sketches. I hope everyone in the group is having fun with it too...
Ahh...genuine acrylic "kraska!" And so many nice colors!
Priming a real wooden carved window pane.

Go Valya!

.Completed backgrounds of the classroom and museum windows
Mixed colors...
A primed window pane.

Students paint in the background.

Nastya is the next Matisse!! (mixed all those bright colors!)
NYC skyline...a place all these students should visit!
Dasha's fantasy masterpiece!

Working on the neighborhood window

Completed neighborhood window, with my detail work...notice the distinctive St. Petersburg tram, which runs right by the school. The younger students also envisioned having an "aquapark" right in their neighborhood. The dog is eating out of a bowl with the "I love NY" logo on it,but you can't see that in this picture...

A few mural in progress pics!

2009-12-05T09:51:00.001-08:00

Each painting will be covered by a real wooden window pane crafted by a professional carpenter, in the style of traditional Russian windows. We will most likely decorate the frames with a few key stencils that relate to the imagery inside.

Russian pies...yum!

2009-12-02T11:33:00.001-08:00

Hanging out at a local wireless cafe

2009-12-02T11:32:00.001-08:00

It's called "Chashka," which apparently means "cup."

4th workshop: Transferring the mural drawings to the wood pieces using a projector

2009-12-02T10:47:00.001-08:00

We project my sketches from the computer screen onto the big pieces of wood, and trace the outlines.

After doing the projection, the students do touch-ups on the drawings: straightening lines, adding detail, etc.

Some of my color sketches for window designs!

2009-12-02T10:40:00.001-08:00

A classroom window and a museum window. Since so many of the students had drawn cats, dogs, and other animals in their sketches of what they'd like in their homes and neighborhoods, I thought it would be fun to try to incorporate a cat and a dog in each window scene, in some cases other animals like birds, in different creative ways...for example, looking at each other in a museum gallery in the form of statues, busts, and a famous clock at the Hermitage Museum. The classroom scene also includes Dasha's drawing of a dancer.

I find photoshop very helpful in working out color schemes...at our 4th workshop, I had students color in sketches for remaining windows I hadn't colored yet. They apparently told Nastya that they wish they could have such bright colors in their own homes, as they started experimenting with bold interior color schemes.

Planning workshop 3: stencils

2009-12-02T10:12:00.001-08:00

The stencil of Baba Yaga!
Alyosha works on the tram

travel and fantasy symbols

By the third workshop I was admittedly stressed: I had stayed up almost all night doing sketches for all the different window imagery and wasn't necessarily satisfied with all of them...and still had to work out a lot of the details. I was struggling with keeping the imagery simple enough to paint in a short time, but without getting too generic, and combining a childlike aesthetic with a professional standard--and, trying to include all the students' great ideas in each window, in some cases trying to incorporate multiple scenes in one place!

Since we couldn't start working on the wood until it would be delivered later that day, I used this third session to get some ideas for stencils, which we would use to decorate the carved window frames. The window frames and shutters of traditional Russian peasant homes, and almost all domestic items, are usually ornately patterned. I had the idea that the students could make similar patterns, but base them on more contemporary imagery and on the images inside each window: e.g., make stencils of household objects to decorate the windows showing scenes inside a home. I showed students some examples and also demonstrated the craft of converting a line drawing to a stencil/symbol.

Once I saw the creative and skillful stencil designs that came from these students, my stress was quickly gone and I got really excited about the project! I realized that a lot of the details I was trying to cram together in one window could take the form of stencils around the window frames instead. It was a happy accident that we didn't supply the students with black permanent markers to create their final designs, because I'd forgotten to purchase them in advance. Instead, they used different colored markers we found in the classroom, and this made me realize that it would be fun to have stencils and patterns of different colors, including some that incorporate more than one color in the same stencil.

Mainly I got excited because I saw the level of talent these students have, and I always feel better about a public art project once I realize that my students and collaborators will be the ones who bring in the best and most creative components, as opposed to me.

I also have to congratulate Nastya for her great Baba Yaga and Russian samovar stencils!

Hermitage visit

2009-12-02T09:59:00.000-08:00

On my first Saturday in town, Nastya and her husband were kind enough to show me around the Hermitage, St. Petersburg's major museum (and I believe the largest museum in the world): visit http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/ for more information. I also explored St. Petersburg's many riverbanks, bridges, and canals.

Sketching workshops with the mural team

2009-12-02T09:52:00.001-08:00

Using both art and sign language to explore ideas

Yay Valya, our wonderful group leader/sign language interpreter!

Thanks Nastya for taking some great pics!

Some of my window sketches, based on traditional Russian homes with carved window panes (learning to use the metric system too)

2009-12-02T09:47:00.000-08:00

Shopping for paint at the Russian equivalents of Home Depot & Costco/Walmart (?)

2009-12-02T09:41:00.000-08:00

it's nice that they have verifiably real acrylic paint so easily available in this city (heh)...
I think these signs actually translate into "Super!" Literally.

Workshop with younger students

2009-12-02T09:34:00.000-08:00

Translating: first Russian, then sign language!

Looking at my preliminary sketch for the mural

A sketch by a younger student: outside a window in the neighborhood!

2009-12-02T09:33:00.001-08:00

More mural planning workshops in St. Petersburg

2009-12-02T07:54:00.001-08:00

Before meeting with the main mural group on Friday, we did two short workshops with all the students in the younger grades--mainly to understand their main interests for a mural that will be created primarily for them. At our workshop they shared the drawings they had done in response to a very general prompt by their teachers about what they'd like to see from their windows. I was admittedly a little concerned when I did not see any clear overall theme emerging from these drawings--but there was a rather interesting variety. Some of the imagery was more generalized or literal, things that students already see in their own homes and neighborhoods--the distinctive red tram that runs along the wide street in front of the school, an auto dealership across the way, a street vendor's cart. Other students had gravitated toward the more imaginative: especially wishing to see more "aquaparks" with water slides, zoos, and New Years decorations in their neighborhoods (in Russia, New Years is the big holiday where people decorate trees and exchange gifts). In the interior views of students' homes, there was an interesting profusion of pet cats wandering over all kinds of furniture and sleeping in windows; TV sets, computers and video games with the plugs prominently showing; and fanciful ceiling lamps. In the first group students simply talked through their ideas, and we spent a few minutes specifically discussing how we could incorporate images of animals in the mural. The second group made a new set of drawings, in response to the question of what they might want to see outside their windows that would improve the neighborhood. Since everything had to be translated twice (first Russian, then sign language), any sort of complex thematic discussion was difficult.

I left feeling excited by all the cute and playful drawings, but also with the hope that the older group, our core mural team, could come to a swift decision on a more specific approach to our theme. After our first planning workshops with this group (about 8 students in the upper grades, selected by teachers based on interest and artistic experience) it was apparent that it wouldn't be as easy as I had hoped. My last group in Krasnoyarsk had been immediately vocal from the start in taking ownership of everything from larger conceptual decisions to the minutia of practical things like photocopying and image research. This group, while all talented young artists and clearly interested in working on a project, was initially more reserved and quiet--not only in a literal sense, since many of them only communicate by sign language. I had come with a list of some of the main trends I pulled out from the younger kids' drawings, and examples of each, and thought maybe these group members could discuss amongst themselves and vote on which ideas seemed the strongest, and create some final sketches for the mural before we left for the day. It became apparent that I would have to guide the students a little more toward one idea, and that it was easier for them to work out their ideas by sketching than have a group discussion. We did not get a lot of finalized designs by the end of this workshop, but we did narrow things down to choosing 6 specific windows to make: a classroom window, a museum window, and a home/house window (looking inside) and a neighborhood window, faraway places window (such as NYC or Paris) and a fantasy land window (looking outside). The students wanted to sketch some ideas over the weekend for all of the windows on this list, and bring them in Monday to finalize the design.

I left feeling like we were not as far along as I would like to be, but at least were narrowing down the ideas. I realized that I would have to do a lot of the main design work on my own and come up with some very structured ways for the students to take part, but I did feel strongly that the ideas should come from them and not me. For this reason I felt comfortable incorporating an extra sketching/planning day before making any completely final drawings of what would go in each window. I did spend the weekend designing specific window frame shapes based on Russian folk art, which would be cut by a professional wood carver/sculptor, and arranging how they would be placed on the school hallway walls--I am now proud to say I am much more comfortable with creating architectural scale drawings in adobe illustrator, but am not about to pursue a career in architecture!

On Monday, we presented the specific window shapes to the students in the group and asked them to make even more finalized sketches for each one--each student picked one window to work on. There were a few new ideas the students brought up which we had to shoot down because of the need to focus the project. Unfortunately this second sketching session got cut short because most of the students were not let out of their after-lunch classes by teachers--a problem that Nastya would later resolve! At this session, the group began to gel and it was fun finding ways to communicate and connect with them despite the multiple language barriers--from writing down words in English and Russian, to learning a few key sign language gestures to accompany the smattering of art lesson-related Russian words I've picked up here: like "horasho"/"good" or "krasiva"/"beautiful." I also saw how engaged they become in their artwork, and how this is a wonderful form of expression for them.

After the workshop, I was still left with the assignment of putting hundreds of sketches and ideas into 6 small windows that need to be both engaging on their own, and cohesive as an entire installation--definitely a challenge from an artistic standpoint alone!

Public art site at the school...pre project!

2009-12-02T07:15:00.001-08:00

An actual view outside the school window

We will install 6 different windows throughout this long hallway, plus an extra one for the project title.

I wrote the following project description for our promotional postcard:
This project [title in English and Russian to come soon!] builds upon a recurring theme in my own artwork: combining multiple views in one picture. The project will transform a corridor in the school through inserting painted windows on its walls. The "windows" will be made of wood with three-dimensional frames carved and decorated in the style of traditional Russian windows, alluding to the importance of historic preservation. Each window will show different interior or exterior scenes that reflect the responses of the children at the school when asked, "what would you like to see inside and outside your windows?" The windows will touch upon such themes as neighborhood and family life, the importance of learning, and the potential of imagination.

Public Art Presentation at the school

2009-12-02T07:09:00.000-08:00

A captive audience of students and teachers
Russian, and then sign language interpretation!

What is public art? Good question...

First mural planning workshops in St. Petersburg

2009-11-29T22:35:00.000-08:00

In St. Petersburg, I am doing a very different sort of project than in Krasnoyarsk, though it is also at a school for children (quite incidentally, the school is no. 33, while the Krasnoyarsk was no. 32!). The group I am working with will be younger, all students at the school, and all deaf or hearing impaired, as this is the school's specialty. They also are not as available for as many hours per day. As opposed to the last project, which was such a quick and intense experience,we have almost 3 weeks to do the project until the presentation day scheduled Dec 10--apparently this is longer than most ArtsLink residencies, though I am starting to realize this is not a lot of time!

On my first day of the project, Tuesday Nov 24, I gave a similar presentation on public art to the one I gave in Krasnoyarsk, but this was geared more towards a school-aged audience: much shorter, and less focused on the theme of Utopia and social issues, more focused on the simple idea that public art can make an environment better and create a sense of home. I focused less on street art, and more on community murals and projects at schools. I was coming into the project with the general theme of home, or the Russian house ("doma"); Nastya, the project manager working with me in St. Petersburg, had told me in advance that Russian folklore centered around magical spirits from the home is something that interests the school.

Immediately after the presentation the teachers and students began to discuss (excitedly, in Russian and sign language) ideas for how the project will be carried out. Surprisingly, everyone seemed to arrive pretty quickly at a main idea at this first meeting: to place different windows down a long school corridor, each showing some kind of view looking either inside or outside the students' homes and schools. I was immediately excited by this ideas as it relates to so much of my other artwork, including a mural proposal I had made for my old high school, as an assignment for a mural fellowship program, that inserted fake windows on the building's exterior.

The students who had attended my lecture, mostly upper grades (ages 12-16 or so) felt strongly that the younger students should have a say in the content being seen through the windows, but that the teachers would assemble a core group of older students to work with me on all aspects of the mural. The following day (Wed) I would not come into the school at all but the teachers in different classrooms would discuss this idea with students and collect sketches of their ideas, which I would then review Thursday. Friday would be my first day working with the core mural group, and hopefully that session would yield some final sketches. We spent the rest of the day touring the school and discussing project logistics.

On that same morning I had also met Masha, who runs an organization ArtTerra, which works with artists to design playful, imaginative interior spaces and playgrounds for children. We will be collaborating with her on this project mainly in utilizing her expertise designing whole spaces and working with 3-D materials. For example, she was very excited by the idea of creating actual window frames out of wood, and knows wood carvers who can create pretty elaborate designs for them.

More on the next workshops to come...

BBQ for my last night in Krasnoyarsk!

2009-11-26T12:56:00.001-08:00

After tonight, I will be heading to St. Petersburg--a much bigger (and hopefully warmer!) city, to do a 3-week mural project at a school for deaf and hearing impaired kids. Very different kind of project, but after the experience in Krasnoyarsk, I am definitely ready to adapt to the demands of the situation. I will, however, really miss the experience I have had here living with such warm and generous people, and the immediate feeling of community that comes from doing something so huge and so intense with a group in such a short period of time. I do hope I will have the opportunity to come back to Krasnoyarsk for future ArtsLink or other public art projects...there were many people who interviewed me for local papers during the project, and people who came specifically to meet with us about how to continue such projects--I know the buzz has been spreading ever since Kendal Henry and Luisa Cladwell did the first ArtsLink project this past spring. I think the fact that there is no Russian equivalent to the phrase "public art" (instead they literally say "public art" in English--much like Americans do with other un-translatable art phrases like "avant-garde" I guess) is a testament to how ripe for future development the field is here, especially in smaller, less tourist-centric cities like Krasnoyarsk. I am very inspired to keep contributing to this development.

And thank you again, Ira, Slava, and the whole Ulanova family for their amazing hospitality (as demonstrated partially by this final feast, most of it cooked in my own bedroom!!):

Slava grills some chicken

Traditional Siberian river fish!

Final Krasnoyarsk Excursion

2009-11-26T12:47:00.001-08:00

Ira's father drives us to see the Krasnoyarsk chapel and amazing views of the city!

Famous Krasnoyarsk chapel: symbol of the city!

A traditional Russian Orthodox service

Other Krasnoyarsk public art?

2009-11-26T12:41:00.001-08:00

I met a nice Siberian young man...

...but I think he's married!

Lenin statue

Outside a photography store

More Ceremony Pics

2009-11-26T12:31:00.000-08:00

Group shots!

Me with Ira & family
Sasha
Me, Sasha, & Masha
Me, Nastya & Ivan

Nastya & Alex

Ceremony pics!

2009-11-25T02:19:00.000-08:00

Irina Alexandra writes the Russian title page just in time for the ceremony...

Ira got a special modern dance group to perform at the ceremony, one of the highlights!! They planned their costumes and movements to provide a nice temporary visual addition to the mural...

The school director gives me a special letter of recognition and gift of limited edition Krasnoyarsk art history book

Slava also gets an award...couldn't have done this without him, and Ira of course!!!!

The biggest surprise was a portrait of me drawn by Alex and painted at the ceremony by the students. Such a wonderful gift!

Completed mural pics!

2009-11-23T22:07:00.000-08:00

The final mural has been very well-received by students, participants, and teachers. At least Slava & Ira assure me this is the case. Though I can't always understand what people say about the mural in Russian, facial expressions and tone of voice say a lot too...

As for the ceremony: wow. It far exceeded expectations, and I don't think I can put it into words...just want to say THANK YOU again to everybody. The live dance that seemed to blend seamlessly with the mural; the speeches; the creative gifts....I have never received anything like the portrait the group made for me and spontaneously painted at the ceremony.

I hope the other young artists and I keep in touch and I want to reiterate to them that this was their project, and they can do it again! I actually told them about the American word "entrepreneurship" and how they can start their own business doing this type of work around the city.

Very touched, is all I can say...so grateful for this experience in Krasnoyarsk!

Day 5: Finishing up!

2009-11-23T22:06:00.001-08:00

For me, completing a project is always the most stressful part: there are final decisions to be made: how to tie it all together, what details to enhance and which to subdue, and where to apply my perfectionist tendencies, and where to let go. This is especially true in a situation like a short-term international residency, where I won't be able to come back to the mural on my own for repeated tweaking sessions. One thing I realized I would have to let go of with this project, for example, is having completely uniform, flat color throughout the background ("present Krasnoyarsk") sections...the quality of the paint we could find in Krasnoyarsk was such that overnight the pigment might change slightly and result in a slightly different color being applied to the wall...and there was also the issue with having to buy a different type of "acrylic" base to mix more blue river paint because the store had no more of the original substance. Normally I am extremely picky about matching background color if a new batch needs to be mixed, but in this situation, striving for this was turning out to be more frustrating that it was worth--so I settled on simply trying to make the slight color variance as un-obvious as possible.

Saturday afternoon's mural session was probably the most stressful for all the above reasons, especially since the mural was at a stage where the work that remained to be done was mostly more skilled work like touching up outlines and edges, finishing the individual futuristic graffiti murals near the top of the wall, adding detail to the large book, and writing in words and titles. Doing a mural is always a challenge of multi-tasking: keeping an eye on the big picture while supervising and assigning individual tasks based on participants' skill levels, and especially at this late stage, trying to finish the sections that I need to paint or finesse as the supervising artist while making sure everyone else's time is used productively. There are always interruptions, often in the form of questions or requests to change or add something, and a process of figuring out what will look best, but also what we have the time to do!I n some cases it is actually a challenge to have too many people there who all want to help, when all the fool-proof tasks like painting large areas of color are done. (Eventually the teachers gave some young students from the school who had just arrived that day wanting to help their own little project, painting a square pole inside the office, which turned out beautifully!)

I was initially unsure about some of the final decisions discussed by the participants, such as adding titles and dates to the stenciled buildings. I kind of liked their air of mystery and simplicity when title-less--I always hesitate to just give away too much information in an artwork. But the strong feeling at the school was that the buildings need to be identified so viewers know their meaning and, in the case of the no longer extant Krasnoyarsk buildings, when they became obsolete. The school's art teacher, Irina Alexandra, could also write the titles very precisely in beautiful Russian calligraphy. The participants wanted me to write the titles on the two NYC buildings in a similar style. I soon realized that naming the buildings would be a good move, and by having the titles in the two languages, they would still remain mysterious: e.g., for an English-speaking viewer like me, the Russian building titles would beg to be googled and translated, and I imagine the Russian students who see the mural on a daily basis could have a similar response to the English NYC titles. For this reason, when we discussed what should go in the book itself, I immediately thought this would be an appropriate place for the title and participants' names, and that they should be in English on one side, and Russian on the other. We also chose a deep red color for the book cover based on the symbol of the school, which has a book bearing the symbolic chapel of Krasnoyarsk with a sun behind it. The school director wanted the school symbol represented in some way in the mural, and while the participants did not want to show it literally, the red book with a yellow sun shape behind it creates a subtle reference that also alludes to the role of this school and learning in general (about the past, about other parts of the world, etc.) in an ideal Krasnoyarsk.

The mural group also had wanted from the beginning to put fish swimming in the river, and the graffiti words "Ideal City" in a strategic place. We encountered a slight problem when the student, Nastya, who had originally planned to paint the fish, called in sick. This turned out to be a positive development in that it created a whole new project for about 5 students, as they got to work sketching and painting new fish. I left the design up to them but was pretty insistent that the fish and letters in the river should be pretty subtle--not too big and only in tones of blue, and like the futuristic background, should avoid too much black or white (stencil colors)--it was important to me to maintain a clear separation via color and style between the different sections of the mural. I also thought it would be fun to bring out the heating duct covers by confining the fish to that area, and confining the graffiti letters to the opposite wall.

One suggestion I decided to shoot down was outlining all the main skyline buildings to bring them out more. This was partly a practical decision--it was something I was on the fence about initially, and if we'd had a few more days, I might have slept on it to see the mural with fresh eyes, or experimented with drawing outlines into a photograph of the mural using photoshop first...but given that it was already late at night when this suggestion was made and there were still many other things to finish, I decided to make a more theoretical design decision that the lack of outlining set the "present krasnoyarsk" apart conceptually from the other parts of the mural that are so detailed with so much outlining. I think we all wound up feeling at peace with this decision.

By the last few hours, I was feeling the adrenaline rush of being almost done, and that amazing feeling I seem to only get from hands-on art projects, where I completely lose track of time and it no longer matters. I just knew that all the other artists seemed to share this drive to get the project done that night, and the teachers weren't kicking anyone out. When I finally finished writing all the names on the mural and we left for the day, I think it was around 11:15 pm...we'd been there since about 2 or 2:30. The students had all agreed that the next afternoon, Sunday, at 2pm would be the best time for the presentation ceremony. I wasn't sure exactly what this would entail, but I was looking forward to finding out!

Finishing up the mural!

2009-11-23T22:00:00.000-08:00

Yana, Saha & me

Painting the fish

Ideal city!

Masha finishing up her masterpiece

Visit to Historic Surakov Museum

2009-11-23T20:56:00.000-08:00

A preserved 19th century house & estate where artist Vasily Surakov (Василий Иванович Суриков)made his home in Krasnoyarsk. We had a great, detailed tour from the museum director that touched on many aspects of traditional Russian homes too. Thanks Slava for translating! :-)

It is good luck to take photos of yourself in the mirror apparently
The museum contains many original artworks

He loved music

Very traditional Russian home architectural style
Krasnoyarsk takes its icicles seriously?
Statue of the artist

Some random sightseeing walking through Krasnoyarsk Winter Wonderland

2009-11-23T20:25:00.000-08:00

Main government building

A local teachers college I think

Toy store...watch out for pigeons!
Photo op?

California dreamin, on such a winter's day...?
A "leafy" tree

Catholic church near Ira's house

I am so lucky the weather was maybe high-20s (-2 degrees or so Celsius) my whole time in Krasnoyarsk--pretty normal for January in NYC. The day I left was about 9 degrees (-13) and later this week is supposed to be even worse. I was having some fun with a calculator & old conversion formulas I was able to dig from the recesses of my brain from 8th grade science class, and figured out that -40 degrees is exactly the same farenheit & celsius! Pretty cool (literally haha), but all I know is I do NOT want to be in Siberia on those days...no offense to Krasnoyarsk.

Krasnoyarsk cuisine (yum!)

2009-11-23T19:58:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Ira's wonderful mother for cooking and sharing so much food with us...I have so far been VERY impressed by Russian food! (or maybe let's just face it, "American" food is kinda inferior to that of most countries...)
Slava & I at the breakfast table.
Aladi (sp?): traditional Russian pancake type-dish.

Borscht, cabbage, & Russian pizza!

Seourneek (sp?) another type of pancakes, made with curds. And of course brusnika, traditional berry that only grows in Siberia I think! (tastes kind of like cranberries, but smaller & sweeter).

Natasha, age 11: youngest muralist!

2009-11-23T19:52:00.001-08:00

In Brooklyn?

Placing & making the stencils!

2009-11-23T19:41:00.000-08:00

Teachers Svetlana & Nadya (English teacher) : THANK YOU NADYA for translating my stencil-making demo!!!

Natasha works on a stencil, then some touch-ups
Natasha works on a stencil, then some touch-ups

Ira & Nastya work together

Ira trying to erase my face with a paintbrush???
Me with Ira & school staff members Svetlana and Irina Alexandra
New Yorker in front of her city's symbol

Completing the mural background

2009-11-23T19:29:00.001-08:00

Alex works on his abstract "future" section

Olga, an amazing straight-edge painter!

River!!!

Tracing & cutting stencils

2009-11-23T19:22:00.000-08:00

We traced over enlarged photos onto thick vellum paper
and darkened what was to be cut out with permanent marker

and cut around the black lines
challenging, but we can do it!

Making stencils!

2009-11-21T19:16:00.000-08:00

Workshop 4: Трафарет/Stencil!!

2009-11-21T18:32:00.000-08:00

Friday was a big work day on the mural...my goal was to get the rest of the background and all the stencils done, with only some key details and touch-ups left for Saturday. Was our group up to this task? Absolutely!

First, we had to cut out all the stencils (Трафарет--trafah-rret) so we could apply them to the wall. We had not chosesn easy pictures to "stencilize"--the "old Krasnoyarsk" buildings were in some cases very complicated, even when simplified to just black and white shapes--e.g., cathedrals with thin little windows and gables. With a stencil, where you cut out paper is where the paint goes, and what you don't cut out remains white. You can't have any white "islands" in your drawing that aren't connected to the white of the background, or else they will get cut out too, e.g. white windows inside the borders of a black building surface. So I had to refine most of the stencil drawings so they met this criteria. Fortunately, of the several students who had arrived early to help me, one girl really caught on to how to do this and helped refine and re-trace a lot of the drawings onto vellum paper, from which they would be cut. What happens a lot is that once one student understands how to do something, he or she will teach the others, in Russian, so I no longer have to worry about showing each student what to do, which has been essential throughout our work on the mural.

Even with our edits, the stencils were still very detailed and time-consuming to cut out, and I began to worry that the cutting could take all evening and get frustrating or boring for the group. However, the students handled this challenge wonderfully well, demonstrating their continued commitment to their decision behind using those old building pictures for stencils. I don't think they normally get to use real Xacto knives--apparently they're a lot more expensive in Krasnoyarsk, and the group laughed when I wrote the word "Xacto" for them--so that was fun. They did quite understandably express the need for a tea and cookie break before starting to paint on the wall again, after finishing all the concentrated tracing and cutting!

We got to work again on the background. There was an amazingly cute little 11-year-old girl, Natasha, the daughter or granddaughter of one of the school teachers I think, who turned out to be a great help/doer-of-everything, always with the biggest smile I've ever seen. Natasha and others quickly painted in the entire blue river. The three students, Alex, Alex, and Masha, who had decided to do the futuristic graffiti background, continued to work on their individual spots on the upper wall--these were coming along beautifully and I decided to pretty much let these artists do their thing. But I did assert that I felt strongly that not only should the students keep putting thought into mixing the colors for this section, they should avoid putting too much white or any black up there, so that there would be a clear distinction between the future section and the black and white stencils that would represent the past.

At a certain point when it became clear that we were running out of simple things to do on the background, I realized it would be necessary to stop the whole group for a Трафарет demo. Fortunately, the English teacher was there to help translate my instructions. I showed people how to very carefully tape and paint over the stencils. After this the group was pretty self-sufficient and even the youngest and least experienced students were able to do a good job getting all the stencils on the wall. They even started doing touch-ups on the stencils without my asking. I am really glad I made the stencils an important part of this project since most people seemed to have never done them before. While this mural is on the whole very student-directed, this is where I feel I have really taught them something new. I hope they will be inspired to keep making stencils on their own!

Another thing I have been realizing throughout this project is how much I am able to communicate without words--e.g., by pointing to art supplies or demonstrating skills with my hands. I guess for this reason art really is a universal language, at the risk of sounding corny...I am also realizing, however, than when it comes to making nuanced artistic decisions as a group, or explaining my reasoning behind something that is not as obvious--e.g. not using black in the "future" background, or waiting until the exact right color is mixed to begin doing background touch-ups--it is important to be able to use words! This is where the several people who know English were very helpful.

Very productive day... left around 9pm, feeling excited about seeing the project to completion the next day!

Mural in progress...note the distinctive Krasnoyarsk tower!

2009-11-19T10:50:00.000-08:00

Painting!

2009-11-19T10:35:00.000-08:00

Краска/Paint

2009-11-19T09:56:00.000-08:00

Kendal was right: it is a bit of a challenge to buy acrylic paint as we know it in the US...or even interior latex paint (the cheaper alternative for murals), it seems. We could have tried an art store in a marketplace an hour and a half away from the school, where apparently no buses go, but instead decided to get a few liters (?) of plain white paint that is "acrylic" according to the salesperson at a local variety store (which sells everything from yard sculptures to seed packets to paint). She also directed us to small bottles of pigment we could use to color this paint. After being sure that the paint would be water-based and quick-drying, I figured we could use this dyed white acrylic at least for the main 2 or 3 background colors of the mural. To complicate things further, the store did not have any blue pigment, which we would need for the river, but I did have some blue acrylic paint I had brought from home that we could maybe mix in. Hey, art is all about experimentation, and this was going to be a mural that incorporates many styles and voices. We would also use some of the small amounts of Utrecht store-brand "student grade" acrylic paint I was able to lug in my suitcase from NYC for key details of the mural like the stencils and abstract graffifi futuristic background.

Needless to say, this paint-buying excursion took longer than I thought and meant that I was even more worried about having enough time to complete the mural, as I had wanted to get started drawing the design on the wall and mixing the colors much earlier in the day, before the group arrived. Instead, we ate some surprisingly good school cafeteria food (I'd love to find a school lunch in NYC served with freshly baked sourdough bread and iced tea from real tea leaves!) with some of the teachers who apparently conversed in Russian about being happy with how the project is going.

Once we got started working on the wall, around 3pm, I was pleasantly surprised by how much we got done, and how much ownership the students had over the project. The teachers rounded up some students early on to help cover the floor with newspapers and move the chairs(which it turned out, are not attached to the wall after all). Group members kept arriving and I gave them different tasks to draw parts of the mural, help mix paint colors (the pigment thing worked ok, though I was initially very frightened by the amount of water that had settled at the top of the paint...and I would have liked the colors of the background a little darker, maybe use 2 bottles of pigment next time around...but on the bright side, this way it matches the pastel colors of the entire school building). The student, Nastya, who had offered to blow up the stencil drawings arrived around 4:30 with larger photocopies than I had expected, which looked amazing! Several students started laying out where the stencils would go on the wall, while Alex drew in the entire Krasnoyarsk skyline much faster and better than I could have done on my own!

When we started painting, the group did not need a lot of guidance in order to figure out which color goes where, and how to paint neat, straight edges. The main moment of tension came when a few students expressed a strong desire to draw their own abstract, street-artist inspired designs behind the main skyline, to represent the "future Krasnoyarsk." At first I had doubts about how this would fit with our overall design and whether we would have time to do it, but Alex had already started drawing a large section before I could stop him. I quickly realized that not only were the students passionate about this aspect of the mural; it actually could become one of the most interesting and essential elements, as the style of the designs was highly sophisticated and distinct, like a cross between Miro and Mission District street artists. I did feel the need to maintain a degree of control over these more freestyle sections so when Alex wanted to paint his section and began to take primary colors on a pallette, I suggested that he put some more thought into mixing very specific colors that would look good with the rest of the mural, and talk them over with the group. This seemed to work well, yielding some subtle yellow-green and magenta tones that everyone liked.

I was overall very impressed with these students, whose combined talents can clearly produce a mural that is much more interesting than what I would have come up with on my own. Slava and I were talking later about how perhaps they needed my visit to Krasnoyarsk as the inspiration to come together for such a project, and that it would be great if they continued to make murals for different parts of the city on their own, e.g., as a mural team. I could picture energetic murals brightening up the snowy winter streets, maybe commissioned by shop owners to cover up the scattered graffiti tags on their walls. At least, that's how it sometimes works in the United States...

I hope that things also go smoothly tomorrow--but I at least feel more confident that we will finish the project before I leave!

Two cities will be side by side (instead of 12 hours apart)

2009-11-19T09:55:00.000-08:00

Painting the "book" and "pages" white.

2009-11-19T09:53:00.000-08:00

The group decides where the different stencils will be placed. I am very glad the English teacher is with us! ;-)

2009-11-19T09:51:00.000-08:00

Drawing the river on the mural

2009-11-19T09:47:00.000-08:00

Russian Baskin Robbins!

2009-11-19T09:45:00.000-08:00

Slava: "Do you want me to take a picture of you in front of an ugly advertisement next time?"

Krasnoyarsk has the fattest pigeons I have ever seen!!

2009-11-19T09:43:00.000-08:00

Apparently, this is unpopular public art in Krasnoyarsk

2009-11-19T09:42:00.000-08:00

More Krasnoyar-chitecture!

2009-11-19T09:40:00.000-08:00

Alex and Olga work on the final mural sketch

2009-11-18T19:33:00.000-08:00

The group working together

2009-11-18T19:32:00.000-08:00

Discussing the overall design

2009-11-18T19:30:00.000-08:00

(Other) Alex's preliminary mural design

2009-11-18T19:29:00.000-08:00

One of Alex's old building stencil designs

2009-11-18T19:27:00.000-08:00

A beautiful snowy (warm!) day!

2009-11-18T19:26:00.000-08:00

More Krasnoyarsk graffiti!

2009-11-18T19:17:00.000-08:00

Second workshop

2009-11-18T18:36:00.000-08:00

The second workshop went really well! At first I was nervous because not as many people showed up (especially at 4pm as instructed) but since many of them have work or school commitments, we had a lot more arrive around 6 or 6:30. What was nice is that I got a chance to talk to some of them more individually at the beginning--in some cases with the help of their English teacher. I am learning a few very important Russian words: "trafayeta:" "stencil," and "kraska:" "paint." I think I will still have to double check with Ira & Slava for the Russian alphabet spellings of those words, to make sure I get it right for my next entry. The word "graffiti" seems to be a universal one, in many senses!

Quite a few students brought in full designs for the mural wall, many of which, as I had expected, were too complex for the time and resources we have. I had to explain some practical things to them like for example, we only have one ladder, and not a lot of money to buy paint colors, so we probably can't put a lot of complex shapes and colors in the high-up background, or have children from the school paint up there. We also have to account for the immovable chairs that line the wall. We ended up agreeing on having a contemporary Krasnoyark skyline in the background, in two solid colors, a river below it, and if time allows, some more free-form abstract (futuristic?) designs behind the skyline that suggest the future. This is one aspect of the mural that I may have to limit if it seems like it will not look good with the rest of the wall. There will be an open book in the intersection between the 2 walls, with white pages coming out in rows over both walls, with a different stencil on each page that represents Krasnoyark's past. We figured out the total number of stencils we could include based on how many 12" X 16" pages will fit on the wall. We solved the problem of having to re-paint the entire green walls by choosing colors for the skyline that would look good with the existing pallette of the room: green and brown. I explained that in the United States right now, green buildings have a special symbolism, of striving towards more environmentally sustainable architecture. This idea, according to my hosts, has not really taken hold in Russia yet, or at least not in Krasnoyarsk. One student had also brought in some graffiti words that could go in the "river," such as the words "Ideal Krasnoyarsk."

Alex, one of the participants, brought in some photos of buildings in Krasnoyarsk that were torn down or destroyed by fire, and we discussed including a certain number of these old buildings to send a message about preserving Krasnoyark's past. Sasha and Vanya, two girls, also showed up with more such photos. The group decided that they also want to include two stencils of iconic NYC buildings (such as the Brooklyn Bridge facing in the opposite direction from the Krasnoyarsk bridge) to symbolize the global exchange in this project, and leave two blank "book pages" that children at the school could decorate (suggesting that children have a say in the future). Alex wound up teaching everyone else a very simple stencil technique involving coloring in the black parts of the photo with permanent marker to separate negative and positive space in each stencil, and then using a photocopier to blow up the stencils into the appropriate size for the mural. I will still have to modify some of these drawings before they can be cut out as stencils, but this photographic technique is much quicker and simpler than hand-drawing each stencil.

One thing that has really struck me so far in these workshops is the collaborative nature of the work. According to Slava, this is a very Russian characteristic, in contrast to the more individualistic view of the American artist. When I asked the participants if they would prefer to make individual stencils or work in pairs, they actually reminded me of the fact that Russians like to work together! The actual skill of collaboration on an art piece is something that often has to be taught to American students, or accomplished through clear-cut games (e.g., "everyone draw part of a drawing, then pass the drawing to someone else to add on to," and so forth). It was wonderful to see these Krasnoyarsk students' ability to work as a team so naturally.

It will definitely take a lot of work, careful planning, and continued group enthusiasm to get this mural up by the end of Saturday. But I do think we are up to the challenge! (today, the group barely noticed when it was almost 8:00, time to leave!).

Looking at the public art site at the school

2009-11-17T14:31:00.000-08:00

Workshop 1 with participants

2009-11-17T14:09:00.000-08:00

On my second day in Krasnoyarsk, the thermomer outside read, "-8 celsius". This is considered warm for a November day here. It is around 16 degrees Farenheit, about as cold as it gets on the 14 or so very coldest days of the year in NYC. I am lucky because last week, before I got here, the forecast read - 20 or -25 celsius every day.

Despite the temparature, the streets outside were sunny and welcoming as we walked to our morning meeting with the teachers at the school where the mural will be. The site itself is an upstairs area right next to a library where people congregate and also hang shows of children's artwork. There are 3 large walls we could potentially cover. We talked to the school administration about my past work and ideas for themes and they were both excited and open to trying out different things, and it looks like we can do a permanent projcet directly on the wall. One thing we discussed was changing the color of the wall which is a light sort of pastel pea green--the kind of color I'd love to paint over entirely if time would allow, but it probably will not so this is a challenge I have to think about.

At the workshop, I took the 20 or so young participants upstairs to look at the space, and brought up the theme of the "Ideal Krasnoyarsk" again in the classroom. In these community mural workshops I noramally like to do a verbal/written brainstorm where students come up with words they associate with the theme and use the words as a basis for imagery, but this was obviously going to be difficult even with a translator. But the group had no trouble getting into a heated discussion amongst themselves in response to some basic quesitons I threw out like "what are some problems in your city you want to solve?" and "what is your vision for the future" and "how can we symbolize this through very simple, graphic symbols we can make in a very short time?"

The group came up with an initial idea together of preserving the past of Krasnoyarsk and looking to the future on two adjacent walls. They were responding to the issue of new buildings rapidly going up, and developers tearing down older houses and landmarks without thinking of preserving history. THey want to create stencils of images of the past in black & white on "pages" flowing from a book across the mural, with a more colorful "present" cityscape image behind them. They chose to end the workshop early so they could work more on sketches of this from home to bring in the next day.

The challenge will definitely be taking their drawings and ideas and scaling it down to an overall image that can realistically be done in just 4 days. The main challenge I think will be finding a way to paint the background so that it expresses the idea of the present city, but perhaps without having to conver the entire huge walls with paint. More to come tomorrow...

Children's art at the school

2009-11-17T14:02:00.000-08:00

Krasnoyarsk musuem at night

2009-11-17T14:00:00.000-08:00

A student explains her initial idea for the mural

2009-11-17T13:47:00.000-08:00

First workshop at the school

2009-11-17T13:46:00.000-08:00

Local graffiti

2009-11-17T13:42:00.000-08:00

2009-11-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

Street in Krasnoyarsk center of town, near school: watch out for the ice!!!

2009-11-17T13:32:00.000-08:00

Initial meeting with teachers at the school (to plan mural)

2009-11-17T13:31:00.000-08:00

View of the school where I will be doing a mural (exterior)

2009-11-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

Slava & I outside the museum (I was trying to stay warm...look silly!!)

2009-11-17T13:24:00.000-08:00

Street outside Ira's apartment at night

2009-11-17T13:22:00.000-08:00

Krasnoyarsk Day 1: Public Art Lecture at the Museum

2009-11-17T12:37:00.000-08:00

I was very happy to receive a warm greeting at the airport by Irina (Ira) and Slava, my two wonderful project managers/hosts in Krasnoyarsk (if a rather chilly greeting from the weather outside!). My flight got in around 5am (which is 5 pm the day before in NYC!), and then we took a cab to Ira's apartment in the center of Krasnoyarsk. After a 9 hour flight followed by a 7-hour layover the Moscow airport and then another 4.5-hour flight to Krasnoyarsk, I was very happy to be in my upstairs room in Ira's apartment drinking tea.

I was to give an introduction on public art to the group that Ira put together that same day, at the Krasnoyarsk Museum, but fortunately not until the evening, so I was able to sleep for a few hours before heading over there. I was a little nervous about giving an hour-and-a-half presentation to non-English speakers, and wasnt' sure how much they would already know about public art, particularly public art in the US and NYC, though some had participated in a CEC Artslink project in Spring '09 with Kendal Henry and Luisa Caldwell. I learned from Ira and Slava (who was there to translate for the audience), that Krasnoyarsk lacks a government sponsored percent for art program or any official kind of public art body, but that there is a growing youth culture/graffiti movement and that this type of public art would interest participants a lot. Before coming here I had discussed with Ira the idea of focusing the project on "Ideal Krasnoyarsk:" asking the group to envision a more ideal city and depict it through public art. This theme is based on a series of exhibits I curated in Brooklyn, Brooklyn Utopias, where I invited artists to respond to differing visions of an ideal Brooklyn. I had read that Krasnoyarsk is undergoing changes, such as urban redevelopment, and thought it would be interesting to apply this theme to this city in Russia. At the same time, with only a week to do the project, we had to keep the technique of working very simple, so I decided to focus on stencils and more quick, guerrilla public art forms.

To introduce the participants to this project theme and way of working, I focused my presentation on the question, "How can public art create better places?" and first showed a range of different approaches, mostly from NYC, from Christo & Jeanne-Claude's The Gates to subway projects to temporary environmental interventions by Creative Time, Public Art Fund, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council.

Then I focused the bulk of the presentation on murals and street art that addresses community and political issues and engages local community participation. Many images came from the San Francisco Street Art book I helped edit/write. I showed some examples of my own artwork and how I have done murals that combine a simple, graphic background with individual stencils designed by participants, such as my mural for Starting Artists, inc.

I was told that the presentation was well received by the audience, and we got a lot of people to sign up for the workshop the next day. I left the museum feeling excited by the possibilities for this project and eager to learn more about the perspective of people in Krasnoyarsk.

Introduction to the Project

2009-11-17T12:00:00.000-08:00

I was invited by CEC Arts Link, an organization that facilitates artist exchanges to Russia and Central Asia, to do community-based public art projects in two Russian cities in Fall 2009. I will spend a week in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia, from Nov 14-23, then St. Petersburg for 3 weeks, Nov 24-Dec 14. In Krasnoyarsk, I will do a short workshop with a group of about 20 partcipants aged approx. 16-25, from different schools around Krasnoyarsk. This will culminate in a public art project for an interior space in a local school. In St. Petersburg, I will work with a school for deaf and hearing impaired children to do a portable community mural for the school, engaging the students and teachers in the process.

This blog will document my work in both cities, and hopefully generate some ideas about public art's ability to trascend traditional barriers of language, culture, and time.